Final report aims to lift F-35 flight restrictions over Val-P

F-35 at Eglin Air Force Base

Daily News File Photo

By LAUREN SAGE REINLIE / Daily News

Published: Sunday, March 2, 2014 at 07:51 PM.

After eight years of tense public hearings and exhaustive data collection, Eglin Air Force Base on Friday submitted its final environmental impact report recommending flight restrictions over Valparaiso be lifted.

The Air Force now has at least 30 days before a decision can be made about exactly where and how the jets can fly over Northwest Florida.

“It’s been a long process,” said Mike Spaits, environmental spokesman for Eglin. “We’re happy we are finally putting out a final document and hopeful we’ll get a record of decision on this soon.”

The report recommends lifting flight restrictions on one of the existing runways at Eglin, which would allow more flights over Valparaiso.

The city’s mayor, Bruce Arnold, and some residents vehemently are opposed.

“We can’t live with that recommendation,” Arnold said Sunday. “If they adopt it, it would be devastating for the city and surrounding area.”

Arnold and interested parties still are in the process of reviewing the document — with supporting materials it weighs in at a hefty 3,000 pages — but he said it does not appear the report was changed in any dramatic way to address their concerns.

He said allowing more flights over Valparaiso would decrease property values. He also said with the noise levels estimated in the report, the federal government would prohibit certain activities, such as church services, education, or public meetings, in buildings in the affected area.

When the document was first released last June, a public comment period opened.

Seventy-six interested parties lodged comments about the proposal, including Arnold and some Valparaiso residents. All of their comments are included in the latest version of the report.

Most of their concerns dealt with noise, property values and wanting more information about why the preferred alternative was recommended, said Larry Chavers, chief of environmental analysis for Eglin, who has overseen the study since it started in 2008.

F-35s started flying out of Eglin in 2012, but the Air Force left some flight restrictions in place in order to further assess potential effects on the area.

The restrictions included limiting flights on the runway that sends traffic over Valparaiso. If the Air Force decides to lift the restrictions, an F-35 could pass over Valparaiso a maximum of about 30 times a day, Spaits said.

“That would be worst-case scenario,” he said.

Only about seven percent of the program’s flights would use that runway, according to the report. The adjacent runway would continue to be the primary one used.

The report details 19 alternatives at Eglin, Duke Field and Choctaw Field. Of all the alternatives studied, the report found lifting the restrictions on the existing runway to be preferable.

Constructing new runways or moving flights to runways at nearby bases or airfields would be costly or interfere with other air traffic, according to the report.

Moving all the flights to the primary runway at Eglin would be impossible because of existing restrictions on the air space, Chavers said.

He said some minor changes were made to the report to reflect public comments, including clarification on instrument-recovery flights and some additional information about other activities planned at Eglin in the coming years.

The document now goes to Kathleen Ferguson, acting Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Installations, Environment and Logistics, at the Pentagon.

She must allow the public 30 days to review the final document before she can make a decision, Spaits said.

Arnold said he plans to submit a response to Ferguson, likely this week, after he has had a chance to digest the report.

After eight years of tense public hearings and exhaustive data collection, Eglin Air Force Base on Friday submitted its final environmental impact report recommending flight restrictions over Valparaiso be lifted.

The Air Force now has at least 30 days before a decision can be made about exactly where and how the jets can fly over Northwest Florida.

“It’s been a long process,” said Mike Spaits, environmental spokesman for Eglin. “We’re happy we are finally putting out a final document and hopeful we’ll get a record of decision on this soon.”

The report recommends lifting flight restrictions on one of the existing runways at Eglin, which would allow more flights over Valparaiso.

The city’s mayor, Bruce Arnold, and some residents vehemently are opposed.

“We can’t live with that recommendation,” Arnold said Sunday. “If they adopt it, it would be devastating for the city and surrounding area.”

Arnold and interested parties still are in the process of reviewing the document — with supporting materials it weighs in at a hefty 3,000 pages — but he said it does not appear the report was changed in any dramatic way to address their concerns.

He said allowing more flights over Valparaiso would decrease property values. He also said with the noise levels estimated in the report, the federal government would prohibit certain activities, such as church services, education, or public meetings, in buildings in the affected area.

When the document was first released last June, a public comment period opened.

Seventy-six interested parties lodged comments about the proposal, including Arnold and some Valparaiso residents. All of their comments are included in the latest version of the report.

Most of their concerns dealt with noise, property values and wanting more information about why the preferred alternative was recommended, said Larry Chavers, chief of environmental analysis for Eglin, who has overseen the study since it started in 2008.

F-35s started flying out of Eglin in 2012, but the Air Force left some flight restrictions in place in order to further assess potential effects on the area.

The restrictions included limiting flights on the runway that sends traffic over Valparaiso. If the Air Force decides to lift the restrictions, an F-35 could pass over Valparaiso a maximum of about 30 times a day, Spaits said.

“That would be worst-case scenario,” he said.

Only about seven percent of the program’s flights would use that runway, according to the report. The adjacent runway would continue to be the primary one used.

The report details 19 alternatives at Eglin, Duke Field and Choctaw Field. Of all the alternatives studied, the report found lifting the restrictions on the existing runway to be preferable.

Constructing new runways or moving flights to runways at nearby bases or airfields would be costly or interfere with other air traffic, according to the report.

Moving all the flights to the primary runway at Eglin would be impossible because of existing restrictions on the air space, Chavers said.

He said some minor changes were made to the report to reflect public comments, including clarification on instrument-recovery flights and some additional information about other activities planned at Eglin in the coming years.

The document now goes to Kathleen Ferguson, acting Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Installations, Environment and Logistics, at the Pentagon.

She must allow the public 30 days to review the final document before she can make a decision, Spaits said.

Arnold said he plans to submit a response to Ferguson, likely this week, after he has had a chance to digest the report.